About this workshop

The demand is increasing for mathematicians who can constructively contribute to work in mathematics education, such as standards development,
validation of tests, curriculum design, textbook review, and the preparation and professional development of teachers.

This workshop is designed for those in mathematics who would like to learn more about current issues in K-12 education and help address them,
but may lack prior experience in this area. Participants will learn about key issues in the field, such as the core mathematics of K-12 and
mathematical knowledge for teaching.

This workshop will appeal to anyone who has found interesting the challenge of structuring courses for prospective K-12 teachers, is curious
about recent influences on K-12 curriculum (especially the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics),
has wondered about how mathematicians can interact with local school districts and teachers in ways that support children's mathematics learning, or
has thought about ways in which knowing mathematics for teaching a course might differ from simply doing the mathematics involved in the course.

This workshop serves as a place to learn more about the issues involved and meet others interested in mathematics education.

Suggested Short Readings with Links to Articles

During the 2009-2010 academic year, Harvey Mudd Professor of
Mathematics Darryl Yong did something unusual for a university
mathematician on sabbatical: he taught high school mathematics in a
large urban school district, despite his institution not having a
teacher preparation program and only graduating a few students per
year who intend to be teachers. Four lessons emerged from his experience
that he writes about in a special article for the Notices of the AMS.

This report, coordinated by the AMS and MAA, should be useful to the entire
community of professionals who educate teachers of mathematics, from those who teach
undergraduates seeking initial certifcation to those who work with veteran teachers
pursuing opportunities for professional development. Its audience includes professional
development providers housed outside of academic institutions as well
as collegiate faculty from disciplines outside the mathematical
sciences who have become actively engaged in the mathematical
education of teachers. Its primary audiences, however, are faculty who
teach in mathematics or statistics departments and their colleagues in
colleges of education who have primary responsibility for the
mathematical education of teachers. In addition, this report will be
useful to policy-makers at all levels who look to the mathematics and
mathematics education community for professional guidance with respect
to the mathematical education of teachers.

This note presents a proposal for a coherent approach to mathematics instruction in first grade. The proposal is highly compatible with the recently published (in the US) Common Core State Standards for mathematics, but places more emphasis on connections between topics than might be evident from a casual reading of those standards.

This article argues that the consideration of the way in
which the content of elementary mathematics is organized and
presented is worthwhile for both U.S. and Chinese elementary
mathematics educators. As illustrated in this article, the
organizing structure may affect the content that is presented
and ultimately learned by students.

The Common Core State Standards in mathematics were built on progressions: narrative documents describing the progression of a topic across a number of grade levels, informed both by research on children's cognitive development and by the logical structure of mathematics. These documents were spliced together and then sliced into grade level standards. From that point on the work focused on refining and revising the grade level standards. This project is organizing the writing of final versions of the progressions documents for the K-12 Common Core State Standards.

Suggested longer readings

Mathematics Curriculum in School Education provides an international perspective on diverse curriculum issues and practices in different education systems, offering a comprehensive picture of various stages along curriculum transformation from the intended to the achieved, and showing how curriculum changes in various stages contribute to mathematics teaching and learning. The book brings new insights into curriculum policies and practices to the International community of mathematics education.

Transforming Mathematics Instruction surveys and examines different approaches and practices that contribute to the changes in mathematics instruction, including (1) innovative approaches that bring direct changes in classroom instructional practices, (2) curriculum reforms that introduce changes in content and requirements in classroom instruction, and (3) approaches in mathematics teacher education that aim to improve teachers' expertise and practices. It also surveys relevant theory and methodology development in studying and assessing mathematics instruction.